Boy In Girl Dress

Cross-dressing in motion pictures began in the early days of the silent films. Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel brought the tradition of female impersonation in the English music halls when they came to America with Fred Karno's comedy troupe in 1910. Both Chaplin and Laurel occasionally dressed as women in their films. Even the beefy American actor Wallace Beery appeared in a series of silent films as a Swedish woman. The Three Stooges, especially Curly (Jerry Howard), sometimes appeared in drag in their short films. The tradition has continued for many years, usually played for laughs. Only in recent years have there been dramatic films in which cross-dressing was included, possibly because of strict censorship of American films until the mid 1960s. One early exception was the murderer, a transvestite who wears particularly frilly dresses and petticoats, in Alfred Hitchcock's British thriller Murder! .

Film and video

As a central plot element

Movies that feature cross-dressing as a central plot element:

  • Several films based on the 1623 play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
    • Twelfth Night (1996 film) (1996)
    • She's the Man (2006) - Amanda Bynes dresses as a man to be accepted in Illyria's boys' soccer team and get revenge in Cornwall.
  • Wallace Beery portrayed Sweedie in a series of films 1914-1916.
  • Several films based on the 1892 United Kingdom play Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas
    • Charley's Aunt (1915) - An American film
    • Fram för lilla Märta (1945) - A Swedish film
    • Charles Tante (1959) - A Danish film starring Dirch Passer
    • Charleys Tante (1956) - A German film
    • Charleys Tante (1963) - A German film
    • Hello, I'm Your Aunt! (1974) - A Soviet film
  • I Don't Want to Be a Man (Ich möchte kein Mann sein) (1920)
  • Sylvia Scarlett (1935) - Katharine Hepburn dresses as a boy for most of the movie; this is her first movie with Cary Grant.
  • Boy! What a Girl! (1947) Tim Moore impersonates a woman as "Bumpsie".
  • Glen or Glenda (1953) - Ed Wood as a troubled cross-dresser, inspired by his own experiences.
  • Das Wirtshaus im Spessart (1958) - Young countess dresses as a poor boy and joins the robbers to save her friends.
  • Some Like It Hot (1959) - Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon dress as women and join an all-girl band, in order to hide from the mob.
  • Psycho (1960) - Anthony Perkins is a killer who wears his dead mother's clothes.
  • Homicidal (1961)
  • Thunderball (1965) - a former enemy of Bond fakes his death and poses as his own widow in the prologue segment.
  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
  • Gunn (1967) - The killer is revealed to be a cross-dresser.
  • In Like Flint (1967)
  • The Kremlin Letter (1969) - George Sanders plays a notorious transvestite.
  • Female Trouble (1974) - Divine plays an obese criminal woman and an obese man.
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) - Tim Curry plays a self-proclaimed "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania".
  • La Cage aux Folles (1978) - Features female impersonators.
  • Lady Oscar (1979) - The female protagonist, Oscar François de Jarjayes, dresses as a man, but privately acknowledges her feminine side.
  • Dressed to Kill (1981) the killer dresses as a woman.
  • Victor/Victoria (1982) - Transvestism in various forms is included in this musical comedy.
  • Tootsie (1982) - Dustin Hoffman becomes the female star of a television soap opera.
  • A Blade in the Dark (1983)
  • Sleepaway Camp (1983)
  • Yentl (1983) - Barbra Streisand dresses as a boy so she can study the Jewish law.
  • Just One of the Guys (1985) - Joyce Hyser plays a boy so she can win a journalism contest.
  • He's My Girl (1987)
  • Mascara (1987)
  • Delinquent in Drag (1988) - Suke Banji gets expelled from school yet again at the beginning and is subsequently forced to masquerade as a girl in his next school.
  • Torch Song Trilogy (1988)
  • Nobody's Perfect (1989)
  • Nuns on the Run (1990) - Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane disguise as nuns.
  • Just Like a Woman (1992)
  • Ladybugs (1992) - Jonathan Brandis dresses as a girl to play in the girls' soccer team.
  • Little Sister (1992)
  • The Ballad of Little Jo (1993)
  • Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) - Robin Williams's character Daniel Hillard disguises himself as a woman so he can see his children.
  • M. Butterfly (1993)
  • Anything for Love (aka Just One of the Girls or He's My Girl II ) - Chris (Corey Haim) dresses as a girl to avoid his tormentors at school.
  • My Summer as a Girl (1994) - Zach Braff's character Tony cross-dresses to get a job as a chambermaid.
  • Ed Wood (1994) - Biopic of the famous low-budget transvestite filmmaker with Johnny Depp.
  • The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) - Transvestism and transsexuality figure in this offbeat comedy.
  • He's a Woman, She's a Man (1994)
  • Color of Night (1994) - Erotic thriller by Richard Rush
  • Adam Barfi (The Snowman) (1995)
  • To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995) - Female impersonators help people in a small town.
  • My Friend Joe (1996) - Joe is a girl disguising as a boy.
  • The Associate (1996) - Whoopi Goldberg dresses as a white man to prove Wall Street wrong.
  • The Birdcage (1996)
  • Ma Vie en Rose (1997) - The story of Ludovic, who was born in a male body despite having a female gender identity. The film shows the struggle over gender identity she and her family go through.
  • Mr. Headmistress (1998)
  • Chachi 420 (1998)- This Bollywood film is reminiscent of Mrs. Doubtfire, in which a father gets divorced from his wife and also loses the custody of his daughter. From there he tries to get in his wife's house by disguising as a maid to be near his daughter and wife. And as he does a series of comic situations occurs.
  • Mulan (1998) - Mulan is a young woman wanting to fight the Huns for her father and poses as a male to enter.
  • Shakespeare in Love (1998) - Includes Shakespeare's use of female impersonators in his plays.
  • Big Momma's House (2000) - Martin Lawrence plays an FBI agent who goes undercover and dresses as a heavy-set woman.
  • Holiday Heart (2000)
  • The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000)
  • Sordid Lives (2000)
  • All the Queen's Men (2001)
  • Baran (2001) - An Iranian boy falls in love with an Afghan girl who must dress as a boy to keep her job at a construction site.
  • Motocrossed (2001) - Alana Austin is a girl whose father won't let her race because she's a girl, so she goes undercover and poses as a male to race for her big brother.
  • Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) - John Cameron Mitchell plays a transsexual rock singer.
  • The Triumph of Love (2001)
  • Sorority Boys (2002) - Barry Watson, Michael Rosenbaum, and Harland Williams pose as girls when they're kicked out of their dorm.
  • Juwanna Mann (2002)
  • Tipping the Velvet (2002)
  • Osama (2003)
  • Party Monster (2003)
  • The Hot Chick (2003) Rob Schneider plays a girl who turns into a man overnight, and must find a way to change back.
  • The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)
  • Stage Beauty (2004)
  • Connie and Carla (2004)
  • White Chicks (2004) - Shawn and Marlon Wayans play FBI agent brothers who must protect two cruise line heiresses from a kidnapping plot.
  • Kinky Boots (2005)
  • The World's Fastest Indian (2005) - Based on the true story of Burt Munro's attempt to break the motorcycle land speed record. Tina, played by Chris Williams, is a transsexual hotel clerk who helps Bert.
  • Butch Jamie (2007) - writer/director/actor Michelle Ehlen plays a butch lesbian actress who gets cast as a man in a film.

As a minor plot element

Movies in which cross-dressing plays a minor but important role:

  • The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) - Buster Keaton appears in drag in one of the musical numbers.
  • Morocco (1930) - Marlene Dietrich wears a tuxedo.
  • Babes in Toyland (1934) - Stan Laurel masquerades as a woman in an attempt to deceive the villain.
  • The Devil Doll (1936) - Lionel Barrymore plays an evil, elderly woman.
  • Piętro wyżej (1937) - Eugeniusz Bodo sings a song Sex appeal on an official party, pretending to be a woman, introduced as "our home-made Mae West".
  • Love Crazy (1941) - William Powell makes a rare appearance in drag in this screwball comedy.
  • You're in the Army Now (1941) - Jimmy Durante appears in drag in this wartime comedy.
  • Dancing Masters (1943) - Stan Laurel appears in a variety of dancing costumes, including a rather extravagant ballerina dress, in this Twentieth Century Fox film.
  • Abroad with Two Yan

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